the range of machinima
Loading ...As I searched the internet for the way machinima is produced and made, I found this video that explains what it is and how it is made. It is far more involved than I initially thought. I used to think that machinima simplified the process of making a movie because the environments and backgrounds are already provided for you however, creating machinima can be just as, if not more time consuming to create when compared to normal films. Rather than being given more freedom because you are using games and simulations to tell a story, there are limitations with machinima. Many of the short films are limited by the animations that avatars are programed to do.
While exploring various machinima sites, I realized that the content of machinima is not always reiterations of existing stories or short, humorous clips good for a quick laugh. On one side, there are series like Red vs Blue that comment humorously on current events but on the other, there are very serious machinima such as this video that attempts to depict the events of the virginia tech shooting. This video combines the idea of killing in a game for fun with killing in real life. I think something like makes machinima seem more meaningful.
There is an interesting conversation going on about it here. In the 9th comment, someone says:
“I honestly can’t watch the video. Well, I can, but I don’t want to - not because it’s too hard for me to watch or anything like that..but that I know that I most likely wouldn’t be able to take its seriously”
This seems to be one of the biggest issues facing machinima. I agree that it is hard to look at machinima, which uses games as a base of production, in a way that takes the content away from the medium. However, in the case of this video, I think that choosing a game like Halo where the objective is killing, is effective. If the person had attempted to use Second Life, a simulation where killing is not so central, it would not be as effective.
Comments
I am not very familiar with Machinima, but to me, the portion of the Virgina Tech video that was taken from a video game did not enhance the effect of the video whatsoever. In fact, I think it took away from it. It just looked like any old footage from a video game which was then labeled to represent something else. Is that really all Machinima is?
It definitely seems like they could have done more with the characters in the VT video. There’s probably more effective, more graphic clips that could have been used. It is really interesting idea though so parallel Halo with the massacre in this way.
I think I might have kind of an issue with the “medium” here, if one can consider each separate game a medium. While I agree that using Halo, a game where the majority of the gameplay is based around killing, makes a suitable choice for the Virginia Tech shootings, the sci-fi aesthetic of the game might shift the machinima slightly closer to the realm of ridiculous. Something with people not in space suits might be a little more effective (I can’t really think of a first person shooter with normal people right now except for Goldeneye - I’m oldschool like that). On the other hand, Halo is such a recognizable medium that maybe it doesn’t make much of a difference - we’ve somewhat come to regard Halo as the default FPS, so maybe it’s natural to view the material through that particular game. Either way, I don’t know if I’m comfortable with the way the machinima was done, but the message is powerful nonetheless.